S.C. foreclosure activity up from 2011

South Carolina was among 25 states with foreclosure increases for the year, according to data released by RealtyTrac.

Foreclosures in the state increased 19% from 2011 and are up 7.6% from 2010, the report said.

Nationwide, more than 1.8 million homes were under some form of foreclosure last year. This represents a 3% decrease from 2011 and a 36% decrease from 2010.

“2012 was the year of the judicial foreclosure, with foreclosure activity increasing from 2011 in 20 of the 26 states that primarily use the judicial process,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac. “Meanwhile foreclosure activity continued to decline in 19 of the 24 states that use the more streamlined nonjudicial foreclosure process, but there could be a backlog of delayed foreclosures building up in some of those states as well as the result of recent state legislation and court rulings that raise the bar for lenders to foreclose.”

The judicial process involves several court hearings and a public auction sale. South Carolina uses this process in the foreclosure of properties.

The different processes between states means that the foreclosure picture nationally may not be reflexive of local markets, Blomquist said.

“That could mean that although we are comfortably past the peak of the foreclosure problem nationally, 2013 is likely to be book-ended by two discrete jumps in foreclosure activity,” Blomquist said. “We expect to see continued increases in judicial foreclosure states near the beginning of the year as lenders finish catching up with the backlogs in those states, and another set of increases in some nonjudicial states near the end of the year as lenders adjust to the new laws and process some deferred foreclosures in those states.”